The House Appropriations Committee has not yet announced a full committee markup for its FY 2013 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, and now many are raising doubts that it will ever do so. On Monday, Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, expressed his belief that his GOP colleagues have “indefinitely postponed” further work on the Labor-HHS-Education bill. The current draft of the bill seeks to de-fund implementation of the 2010 health care overhaul (Affordable Care Act), and also contains policy riders and cuts to education programs. In the Senate, appropriators still say they will mark up two spending bills before the August recess. The committee may unveil its Defense and Legislative Branch measures next week, although expectations are dim for a markup of the Interior-Environment bill.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill is the last one remaining to be finished by the House Appropriations Committee, which already has approved its 11 other bills. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved nine of their 12 bills.